Monday, November 30, 2009

Monday 11/30/09

Transport Layer Security Renegotiation Remote Man-in-the-Middle Attack Vulnerability
Still hot, still waiting for fixes...

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Microsoft Internet Explorer Cascading Style Sheets Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

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Virgin Media Starts Snooping In User Packets
Using deep packet inspection to measure copyright infringement

UK Cable provider Virgin Media says they're experimenting with a new deep packet inspection solution that will snoop into customer packets to determine if they're trading copyrighted files. The trial will cover 40% of the company's customers, though no action will be taken against users (nor will they be informed of the snooping).

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ICANN Slams DNS RedirectionCalls such efforts a 'destabilizing practice'
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) on Tuesday condemned the practice of redirecting Internet users to a third-party portal when they mistype, or enter a nonexistent URL. You'll recall that the practice gained international attention when Verisign implemented their heavily-loathed Sitefinder initiative in 2003.

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Telecommunications Act changes backed by forensics expert
A call for intercepted data to be destroyed "as soon as it is no longer required" has been...

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Profitable 'Pay Us Or We'll Sue You For File Sharing' Scheme About To Send 30,000 More Letters

Remember ACS:Law? The shakedown organization that appears to have taken over where Davenport Lyons left off (including using some of the identical documents), and who has "partnered" with DigiProtect, the company that gleefully admits that it purposely puts files on file sharing networks just to collect the IP addresses of anyone who downloads, is asking for the identifying info on 30,000 UK users. To put that in perspective, in the years long campaign by the RIAA to sue people for file sharing, they apparently requested info on about 35,000 IP addresses. Of course, when spreading such a big net, it's no surprise that tons of innocent people get caught in it. But that's really of little concern, since no real lawsuits have been filed. They're just hoping a bunch of people feel that it's easier to pay up. It's not about stopping piracy or getting people to buy -- it's about shaking people down for as much money as possible.

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Credit-Card Scammers Drilled Dentists
MANHATTAN (CN) - A man was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for leading a credit-card fraud ring that stole the identities of 176 dentists. Michael A. Roseboro and his crew stole $1.75 million from dentists around the country by claiming to be an investigator with Visa or Bank of America who was looking into potentially fraudulent charges on the dentists' credit cards.

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Spam magnate Ralsky sentenced to more than four years
Dan Kaplan November 24, 2009
Alan Ralsky, mastermind of a fraud campaign that delivered tens of thousands of junk mail messages designed to inflate stock prices, was sentenced Monday to 51 months in prison.

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iPhone Virus-Writer’s New Job: Building iPhone Apps
An Australian youth who created a worm that attacked iPhone users has been hired by a company that creates applications for the iPhone.

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The Psychology of Being Scammed
This is a very interesting paper: Understanding scam victims: seven principles for systems security, by Frank Stajano and Paul Wilson. Paul Wilson produces and stars in the British television show The Real Hustle, which does hidden camera demonstrations of con games.

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Ransomware blocks Net access
Ryan Naraine: Security researchers have stumbled upon a new piece of ransomware that blocks an infected computer from accessing the Internet until a fee is paid via text message.
New LoroBot ransomware encrypts files, demands $100 for decryption

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I Was Wrong: There Probably Will Be an Electronic Pearl Harbor
Ira Winkler says the emerging smart grid makes doomsayers' unlikely predictions more likely

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Checklist: 11 Security Tips for Black Friday, Cyber Monday
This holiday shopping season, IT and physical security practitioners have the tough task of protecting customer data and preventing shoplifting. Here are 11 tips to bring sanity to the process.

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I Was Wrong: There Probably Will Be an Electronic Pearl Harbor

New Banking Trojan Horses Gain Polish

Race on Between Hackers, Microsoft Over IE Zero-Day

Hacks of Chinese Temple Were Online Kung Fu, Abbot Says

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